Second World War

From Hitler's suicide to the Berlin blockade - Friedemann Bedurftig looks at the consequences of defeat, the process of denazification and reconstruction and the growing Cold War tensions between the former Allies in charge of the ruins of the Third Reich.

In the first of our contributions from the Russian magazine Rodina, Sergei Kudryashov charts the twists and turns of the Soviet leader's tricksy diplomacy with his Western comrades-in-arms and its impact on the war effort.

A fascinating speculation on what might have happened for the future of the world if Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union had been successful.

Michael Biddiss looks at how the victorious Allies dealt with the unprecedented prosecution of genocide and mass atrocities by the Nazi leadership and how fair the proceedings were to those in the dock.

The story of an almost unknown war and its international repercussions on the eve of Pearl Harbor.

How did Hitler's armies try and persuade the occupied populations of the Soviet Union to live with their new regime? British military historian John Erickson comments on wartime posters unearthed from the Russian archives.

Has Britain been de-industrialising since 1945? Robert Millward weighs up the evidence for and against - with some surprising conclusions.

Sir Alan Harris recalls the role of the artificial harbours in securing victory in Europe over the Nazis.

Were art and religion inevitable victims of war? David Colvin and Richard Hodges discuss the action and the issues it raised - including testimony from a surviving witness from the monastic community.